Saw Dead Congregation and Slugathor yesterday. Prepare for earliest Swedish dödsmetall (without the Dismember/Entombed influences) and some ultra-underground grindy/deathly/slow Finnish Death Metal (that could have been released on 7" by Seraphic Decay in 1990...)

Killer show, period.
Every band was good and convincing and that´s a rare thing.
Dead Congregation were the first real highlight (for me) and Drowned were brilliant as well, great and full sound for being just a trio!

Asphyx - pure deavastation_________________A nobody in a world of somebodies
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Just back, what a death metal ritual! About 350 devoted metal maniacs from whole Europe, but of course under the stage Poland was rule he he.

Asphyx:
The Quest for Absurdity (intro)
Vermin
MS Bismarck
The Krusher
Serenade in Lead
Embrace the Death (intro)
Pages in Blood
Food for the Ignorant
Abomination Echoes
Asphyx (Forgotten War)
Wasteland of Terror
The Rack
Last one on Earth (encore but on setlist)
(first real encore - dont remember the title)
Evocation (second and last real encore)

the Death Metal GODS played Rite of the Shades before Evocation...

just back, an outstanding show. no words for the ASPHYX cult, even better than the party san.

DEAD CONGREGATION are Killer on stage: morbid and violent death metal with a cursed aura i liked a lot.

DROWNED amazing, they also palyed a cover form 1st Tiamat LP (in the shrines of kingly dead) and some new stuff very interesting.

all other bands was great too, Slugathor had very bad sounds as usual for opener band._________________

Just back, what a death metal ritual! About 350 devoted metal maniacs from whole Europe, but of course under the stage Poland was rule he he.

Asphyx:
The Quest for Absurdity (intro)
Vermin
MS Bismarck
The Krusher
Serenade in Lead
Embrace the Death (intro)
Pages in Blood
Food for the Ignorant
Abomination Echoes
Asphyx (Forgotten War)
Wasteland of Terror
The Rack
Last one on Earth (encore but on setlist)
(first real encore - dont remember the title)
Evocation (second and last real encore)

Yeah, that was indeed one helluva GREAT evening!! Musically speaking a lot more rewarding and actually METAL than the "Nuclear Gathering..." was, as I've grown a bit tired of gasmasks and "painted" skinheads, but maybe that's just me... In short:
-> SLUGATHOR - Solid Death Metal meal, with a pretty odd yet cool frontman, who acted like a mixture of a serial killer and gorilla, for a lack of better word, eh, eh. Very cool stage acting by the drummer also, why don't more drummers bang their heads while constantly rolling their eyeballs through their gigs?

-> TRIBULATION - KILLER surprise!! After initial skepticism, due to the bandmembers obviously appearing VERY young and two of them having dreadlocks (which most often simply looks crap with white males, to put it like that...) I was simply blown away, by the sheer energy of those Swedish youngsters and their intensity and sheer will to kick ass!! Great mixture of pretty early MORBID ANGEL and vintage Swedish DM, this was the first real highlight of the night!

-> DEAD CONGREGATION - Very convincing musicianship and aura! They way they started their show with that long instrumental passage was utterly brilliant! Unfortunately I wasn't too fond of the vocals, as they were lacking a little more expression and variety. Other than that, thumbs up for the Greek pretenders to the throne!

-> DROWNED - As I was about to see ASPHYX soon again anyway, this was surely the band I was waiting to see the most, and they made every effort worthwhile every minute of their gig, not the least because I was a little afraid, whether they could pull it off live as well...but they did it BIG TIME!! They played their whole Demo/12" material which makes most other genre contenders blush immediately anyway + 2 new killer trax as well as TIAMAT's "In The Shrine Of The Kingly Dead". Whereas drummer Theby was appearing pretty possessed while getting all energy out of his system Tilmann and Mors Dalos Ra were simply delivering the goods in a more "cool"-kinda way which worked out great evenutally, making this surely -at least in my humble opinion- the second best gig of the event!

-> NECROVATION - As I haven't heard a single note of those Swedes beforehand, but read all the ravings about them I was about to be given a lesson of Swedish Death Metal excellence...which eventually didn't happen! Not bad at all, it simply didn't click with me at all! Nothing spectacularly good, nothing utterly bad either. Pretty average DM, if you ask me, altough they did get pretty well down with the crowd, so what do I know...?

-> ASPHYX - Although everything prior to this night's headliners was ranging from great to solid, the Dutch Death Metal pioneers showed everyfuckingone in the club how it is done THE BIG BOY way!!! From start to finish, there were no prisoners made AT ALL!! A nearly flawless setlist, a band, where EVERYone was playing/singing their asses off, due to sheer willingness, the whole (!) crowd going berzerk over the songs!! It was one of those -unfortunately- seldom moments, where everything falls into place!! A perfect ending culminating into the absolute highlight of that event!!! Nothing more to add, as anyone present can surely confirm!! The next event organized by "Iron Bonehead" has to compete with that standard for now! Good luck! _________________"Slit my eyes, for they'll remember..."